This is a full-time, one-year position requiring some evenings and weekends. The position starts February 2012 and is funded by AmeriCorps.

As the Media Communications VISTA, you'll be the creative force behind sharing the endless stories that surround Mission: St. Louis. You'll know our audiences and the ones we have not yet reached, and you'll figure out how to reach them. You'll spend a good chunk of your time writing, copyediting, and organizing media—like photography, video, and graphics. You'll direct creative energy towards brainstorming, working with designers, and assembling materials for the web and for print. You'll own a lot of day-to-day projects and have the chance to direct a few creative projects of your own.

Responsibilities

• Help project manage the graphics and communications needs for the organization
• Assemble promotional materials for donors, volunteers, and guests at our event
• Lead and build our volunteer media and communication team
• Write and edit copy for a range of projects from newsprint to promotional web graphics
• Help collect and create compelling images for our website, blog and print materials
• Help build and organize our media database (videos, photos, text)Interview donors, volunteers, and participants and write/design blog posts and newsletters to share their stores
• Research community development information we need for stories
• Monitor and report our communications presence- in newsletters, on the web, in social media

You're a multimedia storyteller.
You're curious, passionate about the power of stories, and you check your facts. You can write a story and assist in shooting photo and video when needed.

You're a trendsetter.
You love a well-branded product just as much as you love a well-written story. You dive into the latest social media and communications trends and you're not afraid to figure out how to try something new. You love identifying a new way to communicate our message and blazing the trail to make it happen.

You have vision for achieving goals and can think strategically to make them reality.
You have great ideas about how to better communicate with our audiences. You can articulate the vision for those ideas. Just as important, you can think strategically about the steps needed to move projects toward completion. You can motivate, delegate, and lead volunteers to accomplish those steps, ultimately creating a fantastic product.

You're creative.
You see the world through rose-tinted glasses, and you love to create beauty for others. You're not satisfied with Arial and Times New Roman...you love all images in the Font Book. You have some experience with the Adobe Creative Suite, whether you're as fluent as a designer or just proficient enough to lead a team of designers.

You can put yourself in someone else's shoes.
You have that knack for reading a sentence or viewing an image from multiple perspectives, recognizing when someone may get a totally different message than what we're trying to convey. You can identify who our audiences are for various projects and think about how we can best reach them.

You love branding!
You know that every product, company, and organization has a brand that communicates loads of information to the world. For a nonprofit, our brand can make or break our success in recruiting volunteers and donors who want to be part of something bigger than themselves. You relish the opportunity to take charge of our brand, ensuring that it conveys exactly the message we want the world to know.

You work as well with your hands as you do with your head.
You can cut, paste, bind, score, fold, trim and tape. You're precise and articulate, whether you're creating mock ups to show around the office or final products to give our high-level donors.

You're picky about writing, and it counts.
You're a meticulous copyeditor. No misspelled word or grammar blunder can slip under your radar. "Styleguide" might be your middle name.

You love organizing things that need it.
You know the importance of an organized database of media. You'll work hours, days or even weeks to make sure the best photos and videos are readily accessible, searchable and always credited to the right photographer/videographer.

You're a multitasking machine.
You organize your work so you can handle a wide range of small projects at the same time without overlooking anything. You can build and lead a team, delegating effectively to accomplish even more.

You sweat the small stuff.
You put care into every little thing you do. You carefully check over all your work before it goes out.

You're assertive and you're a team player.
You speak up when you have an idea or opinion of your own but you also know the power of a group's effort on a creative project.

If you think you're the right person for the job, please send Joy Clarke your cover letter and resume. Please read everything above and review the AmeriCorps*VISTA website, including compensation package, prior to applying. This is a full-time, one-year position requiring some evenings and weekends. The position starts February 14, 2012.